Young Adult

Director: Jason Reitman
Writer: Diablo Cody
Starring: Charlize Theron, Patton Oswalt
Release Date: December 9, 2011
Length: 1 hour 34 minutes

    The legendary and talented duo - director Jason Reitman and screenwriter Diablo Cody - give us a less quirky and cute and more darkly honest film than their 2007 Ellen Page hit Juno. Instead of an interesting romcom, they create a brutally revealing look at what happens to the girl who peaked during high school and has yet to grow up in Young Adult. Academy Award winner Charlize Theron plays that extremely unlikable and knock out gorgeous girl Mavis Gary, a ghostwriter for a young adult (teen) fiction series, living by herself in a cluttered Minneapolis apartment. Her morning routine is waking up to the Kardashians, chugging diet coke for breakfast, downing some bourbon, playing Wii and eventually sitting down to do her job. 

    When Mavis receives an unexpected baby arrival email from her high school boyfriend, Buddy Slade (Patrick Wilson), she decides to return to the hometown she so happily escaped years ago, Mercury, Minnesota. The annoying people she escaped from Mercury think of her as a glamorous writer in the city. Wow, are they are in for a wake up call and so is Mavis when she attempts to win back the happily married Buddy. Cody and Reitman, who were producers on this film as well, are successful, admired and well known enough to create something as bizarre as Young Adult. Without following an outline, without meeting any of our expectations and told through the eyes of a woman we never take a liking to, the film wins the rolling the dice award for 2011. The obscurity of Young Adult makes it surprisingly refreshing but also incredibly hard to sell. 

    From trailers, posters, etc…you may be expected to think that this is simply a weird comedy like Juno, but this is anything but. Of course, you will have more than a few laughs from Cody’s brilliantly clever writing, but you will find that every laugh has an upsetting undertone and that Mavis’ ridiculous comments purposefully become less and less amusing as the film continues. Maybe the idea of Mavis trying to win back a new father is not that funny. Young Adult has a slightly similar turn from humor to seriousness that Reitman’s last film Up In The Air had as well. Reitman is skilled at not making everything dramatic, but letting what is truly the matter with these characters surface to the screen eventually. 

    The unique collaborative effort Cody and Reitman have created was brought to life by no more than one of the best working actresses in Hollywood. Theron is pitch perfect as the endlessly immature Mavis, who has no idea of her actions upon others. Hearing a storyline about a girl trying to get back her old boyfriend who is now married with a kid seems absolutely ridiculous. However, Theron impressively makes us actually believe this delusional girl thinks her plan is going to work and she really does not care about anyone that she hurts along the way. No, we never actually take a liking to Mavis’ selfishness, but there is a point near the end where Theron surprisingly makes you feel so bad for this wasted childish girl, who will never get anywhere higher from the low point she is at now. 

    Though we have discovered a film can work with an unlikable protagonist, there still needs to be someone we can empathize with on screen, a “straight man” so to speak, and in the case of Young Adult that is comedian Patton Oswalt. Oswalt, who many know from his role on The United States Of Tara, plays the crippled chubby Matt Freehauf, who was permanently injured by high school bullies in a gay hate crime, besides the fact that he’s not gay. Matt recognizes Mavis at a bar when she comes home and forms an unlikely bond with her even though, she only treats him slightly nicer than she did in high school and seemingly only has an interest in getting wasted with Matt. He tries talking sense into Mavis, who he can tell is headed down a disastrous path. However, she refutes everything he says with her nonsense about the fact her and Buddy are supposed to end up together. Oswalt provides that much needed maturity, stability and self-deprecation that Mavis completely lacks and gives us a key character to empathize for as well. Patrick Wilson is also great as Buddy, someone you can’t help but empathize for. He just had a baby with his loving wife Beth (Elizabeth Reaser) and now his gorgeous old girlfriend comes back into town, expecting him to drop everything and move to Minneapolis with her. 

    The off-the-wall premise of a girl who thinks she has it all, but in fact has nothing, rings so burningly true in a story of choosing whether or not to grow up. Hauntingly affective, but far from rewarding, Young Adult is the best feel-bad movie of the year.